North Wales Regional Athletics Council AGM
Mountain and trail running report 2026 by Arwel Lewis:-
North Wales athletes continue to dominate the Welsh mountain and trail running scene, at the Welsh Inter-Regional Championships event at Cilcain last August Bank Holiday Monday 26th, North Wales men and women were once again triumphant with Josh Griffiths (Swansea/Deeside AAC) and Eden O’Dea (Deeside AAC) the male and female race winners. Cilcain will once again host the Welsh Inter-Regionals this Bank Holiday Monday 31st August. The Cilcain race was the North Wales trial race for the Trofeo Vanoni Relays in Morbegno, Italy on 26th October which comprised a team of 3 men and two women. Tom Wood, Sion Edwards (Both Eryri) and Josh Griffiths (Swansea/Deeside AAC) ran in the men’s 7.250km/435m relay race with Tom leading the way on the 1st leg handing over to Sion in 9th position overall, Sion was 27th on the 2nd leg handing over to Josh who despite a very good uphill, found the tricky descent not to his liking as the team were placed 22nd overall. Our women fared much better over a 5km/248m race route, Beth Rawlinson (W&B/Oxford Uni) handed over to Eden O’Dea in 12th place overall, Eden had a storming run to finish 6th overall on her 2nd leg and the team 8th overall. Eden had an excellent 2025 all-round culminating in GB selection for the World Mountain Running Championships at Canfranc, Spain finishing 39th overall in the Uphill only event on 26th September with the GB women’s team placing 7th overall.
Congratulations to Meirionnydd RC who hosted a very successful British Hill & Fell Running Relays last October 18th as 190 teams comprising of six runners per team converged on Penanligi Isaf. Dinas Mawddwy for what was a very testing event run on steep race routes much enjoyed by those participating. Well done to Nic Bradley and his team.
2026 saw much of the same with a new initiative for this year’s Welsh Mountain/Fell running Championships which were WFRA & Welsh Athletics combined championships for the short and long race events. At the (Short) championship event at Dolgarrog (Pipe Dream) 6.7km/4.2 miles – 390m/1280ft, there was a record attendance of 180 for the event with another North Wales male and female winning combination of Kieran Wynne Cattenach and Bronwen Jenkinson, both Eryri. The (Long) race will be the Brecon Beacons/Bannau Brycheiniog 34km/21.1m-1700m/5577ft race on June 20th.
Josh & Eden were once again the race winners of the Nant yr Arian Silver Trail Half Marathon event near Aberystwyth earning their Welsh team selection for the Trail de Guerledan Inter-Celtic Challenge in Brittany on 23rd May where, on a baking hot day Josh, the defending champion had to be content with 3rd place on the testing 26km/800m race route though, his team colleague Jacob Tasker (Bridgend) took the win while Eden finished runner up as the combined Welsh male/female team was placed 2nd overall behind the “Local” Breton team. A tough day all round as everyone suffered in the hot conditions.
